Etymologically
Log in

pis

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the French word pis

French has two words spelled pis: the udder, from Latin pectus “breast”, and the comparative “worse”, from Latin pēius.[1][2][3]

pis1 udder

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
late 10th century, Passion
Inherited from
Latin pectus via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin pectus
Etymology tree of pis1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin pectus
French pis

Pronunciation

Forms

pis m (invariable)[4] Old French peiz (late 10th century), piz (about 1050), then pis.[5][3][6]

Etymology

The udder is inherited from Old French piz, inherited from Latin pectus (“breast, chest; heart”).[3][5][7][8][4] Littré notes that it is one of the few nouns that kept in Old French the final ⟨-s⟩ of the Latin neuter, like tems from tempus and cors from corpus.[9] Rey calls the Latin word one without a counterpart outside Italic and Celtic;[5] Wiktionary traces it through Proto-Italic *pektos to Proto-Indo-European *peg- (“breast”).[4]

Cognate with Walloon pé, Italian petto, Spanish pecho and Portuguese peito.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as peiz in the Passion of Clermont (late 10th century), meaning “chest, breast”.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “chest” lasted through the Middle Ages and the 16th century and disappeared in the 17th in favour of poitrine;[5][7][3] Furetière (1690) calls it an old word, still used of a priest taking an oath with la main au pis.[5][7][3] The rural sense “udder of a dairy animal”, first found about 1180 in Guillaume de Berneville's Life of Saint Giles, prevailed in French and in most Gallo-Romance dialects.[3][5][7]

Timeline

  • Late 10th century – Peiz “chest” in the Passion.[3]
  • c. 1050 – Piz in the Vie de saint Alexis.[3]
  • c. 1180 – The udder, in Guillaume de Berneville.[3]
  • 1690 – Furetière calls the sense “chest” old.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The udder of a female mammal, especially of a cow, goat or ewe.[2][3]
  2. (rare) A woman's breast.[3]
  3. (obsolete) The chest.[5][7]

pis2 worse

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
late 10th century, Vie de saint Léger
Inherited from
Latin peius
Ultimate origin
Latin pēior

Pronunciation

Forms

pis (invariable)[3]

Etymology

The comparative “worse” is inherited from Latin pēius, the neuter of pēior (“worse”), which gave pire.[3][5][7][1][10] It served as the comparative of mal.[3]

Cognate with Old Occitan pieitz and Italian peggio.[9][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as peis in the Vie de saint Léger (second half of the 10th century), as an adjective with a neuter subject, the comparative of mal.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word had its main uses before the end of the 12th century: as a noun without article, avoir pis (about 1160), as an adverb (1160–1174, Wace) and as a superlative, “the worst thing” (1155, Wace).[3][5] Aller de mal en pis dates from 1245, qui pis est from Charles d'Orléans (1450–1465), and dire pis que pendre de quelqu'un is recorded by Cotgrave (1611); mettre les choses au pis is in Dancourt (1714).[3]

In modern French it lives on in set phrases such as tant pis, and popular speech tends to replace it with pire.[7][3]

Timeline

  • Late 10th century – Peis in the Vie de saint Léger.[3]
  • 1155 – As a superlative, in Wace.[3]
  • c. 1160 – The spelling pis, in the Roman d'Eneas.[3]
  • 1245 – Aller de mal en pis.[3]
  • 1450–1465 – Que pis est, in Charles d'Orléans.[3]
  • 1611 – Dire pis que pendre, in Cotgrave.[3]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. (dated or literary) worse, less well.[2][3]
  2. Tant pis: too bad, never mind, de mal en pis, from bad to worse.[2][7]

Adjective

  1. (literary) Worse, more unfortunate, with a neuter subject, qui pis est, what is worse.[2][3]

Noun

  1. Something worse: dire pis que pendre de quelqu'un, to say the worst things about someone.[2][3]
  2. Au pis aller: at the worst, le pis, the worst.[9][3]

Usage notes

In colloquial French of northern France and North America pis is also a reduced form of puis meaning “and, besides”, perhaps taken from dialect forms such as Picard pis.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  2. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  4. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 111b
  9. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  10. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 155a

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Pis.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/pis. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·